Dear Aunt Helen

I keep meaning to write to you – so here I am, stopping the procrastination.

How are you?  I hope you are well!  Are you still volunteering at your church?  Do you have fun with the other people in your community?  In what are you active?

Tax season has ended – yay! And I have some payroll taxes to do today.  Suddenly, May is here and the year only just began.  We started out our year having to replace our Toyota.  Remember in my Christmas letter I mentioned that the Toyota blew its radiator on our anniversary trip?  Well, it also blew its engine and Toyota 4Runner engines are in big demand and can’t be found, so we (I) bought a 2006 Dodge Caravan.  Praise the Lord, He has us in a financial place right now where we can afford to replace it.  And it will hold 5 grandchildren in car seats.  I have 5 grandchildren.  So, I’m thinking, and believing, this is a God-thing, God provision.

Speaking of which – I have 5 grandchildren - Madi will be here for 1 ½ months during July & August.  The other 4 aren’t officially ours yet but getting closer every day.  Please pray that God will add speed to the situation.  The children need to know that “mom and dad” ARE mom and dad.

My David is still working even though he just had his 67^th birthday; the cost of going to school late in life. He’s very tired but doing well.  He’s in better health than I am.  I have been having trouble with congestion in my sinuses so much that it pushes and injures (bruises) my eye.  My allergies grow worse and I have to use stronger medicines.  One day I should go see a doctor, but I’m asking God for healing.

May is going to be a busy month and I hope a profitable one.  This weekend I have a speech club conference to attend, and a leadership class, and later in the month a women’s conference/retreat.  In between, lots of work and lots of cleaning.  I want to grab control of the mess in my house.  Clean, dust, remove, digitize (video tapes, audio cassette tapes, record albums, photos, negatives, and slides).  If I ever finish digitizing my own stuff then I’ll start on dad’s.  He would love to get all his photos digitized.

Speaking of dad – he and mom are mostly doing fine; dad more than mom.  She still has heart troubles and she is losing her memory.  But she’s happy and so is dad.  He says he’s short on energy but otherwise fine.  He still enjoys jobs that cause him to drive but can’t do as many as in the past.

I think I’ve run out of things to write about for now.  I hope you are well and that your family is, too.  I don’t seem to hear from anyone anymore.

May God continue to richly bless you.  Write soon. 

With much love,

My (past) Christmas Letter

December 12, 2012

 (I wrote this letter at Christmas time, but never got it posted, 'til now.)

The year has sped by and even in my holiday preparations I was hoping to have our gifts mailed by now and then send out the Christmas cards and letters. Yipes! I'm working on the letter, but the gifts are not yet finished or mailed. [Side note: 4/29/13, I got one mailed to my brother last month and have 2 more to finish. The rest were mailed on time.]

David is still working; retirement is still just a dream. No, he doesn't want to retire to do nothing - he has plans, and he wants to make toys. He always has liked being a Santa Claus. This year he has been busy creating many toys. This, after spending a half-year making the tools he would need to do his creating in our small, one-car garage. (What garage? I finally get one and have to give it up before I use it :D.)

David had two operations on his right eye this year and the doctor says it is healing fine. Then he had a surprise problem that had to have an operation. All well and ready to keep on working.

In July Eve & Mike took two lovely babies (twins), a boy & a girl, into their home for adoption. We are praying that the process goes quickly and smoothly. There are also two other children, also a boy and girl family set, that they are hoping will be theirs. So far they have only had them for respite care.

In October Sara married a wonderful man who loves her and her daughter. Dad performed the ceremony. It was a lovely outdoor wedding at a State Park in Eastern Washington. We were surprised when we saw our friends, Ron & Becca Sawyer, from Moses Lake, were her band. They did a great job.

My house is now more crowded with our possessions that we have brought down or shipped from Moses Lake. It takes time to clear it all away (and yet keep it). We probably won't bring down a load in 2013 until I have more of this current mess cleaned up.

For our 40th Wedding Anniversary, December 9, we planned to spend it in Cottonwood, AZ. On the way up our SUV blew its radiator and we had to be towed into Camp Verde. Enterprise (they pickup & deliver their customers) said Camp Verde was too far from Cottonwood to make the pickup (they were understaffed). Fortunately the auto repair shop had an employee who lived in Cottonwood. He dropped us off Friday night and picked us up Monday morning. They fixed the SUV Monday morning and we returned home. David was late for work. But during the weekend trip we did take the Verde Canyon 4-hour train ride - beautiful, but we didn't see any eagles. Just rocks shaped like dinosaur & elephant heads and one like a full turtle including tail. We had dinner at the Blazin' M Ranch (includes a small western town-front) and show. We went to Montezuma's Castle and Well. Watched cable TV Christmas shows, relaxed, had fun, and enjoyed our time together.  

We hope you and your families all have a wonderful Christmas time and be blessed by God's love.